


The Tudors, Season 4, Episode 1, A Moment of Nostalgia

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s04e01 Moment of Nostalgia, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Premiere, Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26087809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 4





	The Tudors, Season 4, Episode 1, A Moment of Nostalgia

Open to Eustace in London during August 1540. Looking out a window, his VO exposits it hasn’t rained in months. Turning around, trying to ignore the sweat and flies, he writes, and it’s revealed, shockingly, Henry can’t make up his mind about what doctrine he wants the populace to follow to the point he occasionally orders the execution of both Catholics and Lutherans on the same day. There are the tons of both he currently has locked up.

The scene switches to Culpepper carrying a torch, and Eustace reveals there are rumours Henry has secretly married Kathryn Howard.

Incidentally, a person wouldn’t have to have any knowledge of Tudor history to know Culpepper is going to be a villain. Torrance Coombs has pale, light-coloured eyes and blond hair. Blond/e hair isn’t an automatic character trademark of villainy, but often, an actor with such eyes does end up playing the morally ambiguous or the bad guy.

In unrelated news, there’s disagreement on whether his eyes are actually blue, green, or a mixture of both. I haven’t been able to find an official listing. They’ve always looked blue to me, though, and until I read about some of the debate, I never realised it was something up for question.

Henry walks past, and because the show had a tendency not to have historically important characters hovering in the background until they became important, Henry greets him, “Culpepper.”

In his apartments, Henry greets Lady R before going to his bedchambers. Kitty-Kat is waiting for him. The show makes an uncomfortable use of visual symbolism in regards to the virgin/whore dichotomy.

The next day, he and Kitty-Kat enter court.

Once they’re gone, the Seymour brothers look over at a man talking to Eustace. He’s one of Norfolk’s sons, and he’s been in France for the last few years. It’s revealed he writes poetry, and it’s implied he’s a bit of a womaniser.

Interestingly, his name is Harry, and I hope he’s not supposed to be the little boy from the first season. He’s not old, but he’s significantly older than Charles Brandon.

Meanwhile, Charles Brandon is looking pensive because, as usual, his attempts to make Henry happy have gotten himself cast aside, again. Coming over, Eustace observes Charles Brandon seems distracted, and Charles Brandon has a moment of nostalgia for all those no longer around.

I would give the show so much credit for this if it weren’t for the verbal title-drop.

It’s revealed Thomas Boleyn died recently, and no one showed up for his funeral.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Henry makes a speech introducing Kitty-Kat as his new wife, and he goes on about how honourable and maidenly she is.

The feast begins, and it amuses me how Charles Brandon went from standing with the courtiers to sitting beside Henry in such a short period. He introduces Henry to Norfolk 2. It’s revealed N2 is Kitty-Kat’s uncle.

Doesn’t everyone know Anne and Kitty-Kat are cousins? The fact Norfolk was Anne’s uncle was well-established.

Eustace talks to the Ambassador Snape, the French ambassador. He reveals his king took the news of Anne of Cleve’s displacement with unsurprised exasperation.

Kitty-Kat wants to dance, and not feeling up to do it, Henry tells her to do so. Then, realising he’s not comfortable with his pretty, sexually adventurous wife dancing with young, rich, possibly single courtiers, he enlists Charles Brandon as her dancing partner. Heh.

Professor Snape says his king wants to propose a marriage between one of his sons and Mary. In response, Henry talks more about his seventeen-year-old bride.

On the floor, Kitty-Kat literally takes over to perform a dance all by herself in the middle of it. Everyone claps, but Charles Brandon’s face reveals he’s aware of how screwed he is.

The next day, Kitty-Kat shows off a new dress Henry sent. She declares she wants her ladies-in-waiting to wear French dresses.

Serious and severely misplaced amongst the giggling girls, Lady R delivers a letter to Kitty-Kat.

Privately, Kitty-Kat reads the letter to Lady R, and it’s clear the writer, a childhood friend, is demanding Kitty-Kat use her newfound power to help her. Kitty-Kat determinedly brushes the seriousness of the situation away to go back to playing dress-up with her friends.

Elsewhere, Charles Brandon and N2 are talking. N2 makes his disdain of the new blood known. This is interesting considering his father hated Charles Brandon for being new blood. However, this isn’t brought up, and instead, Charles Brandon expresses his hate of the Seymours.

He and John were friends, and Jane could make Henry happy without being a threat to Henry’s affection for Charles Brandon. Whenever she gave birth to Edward and died, however, he realised her family was going to use her permanent place in Henry’s heart to try to displace him. Even with all the growing he’s done, he’s still capable of sadism and violence. He will ruthlessly eliminate those who he fears might cause Henry to break the bond between the two of them.

N2 declares he will bring the Seymours down.

Next, Henry and his court are travelling. Charles Brandon wonders why Henry is so happy since they’ve caught so little, and Henry babbles about Kitty-Kat. Charles Brandon is diplomatic, but I imagine he’s wishing Henry would go back to bragging about the women he bedded. They bonded over such things, but Henry waxing on about love has always made him uncomfortable.

Henry asks how Charles Brandon’s Catherine is, and not caring at this point about much of anything, Charles Brandon answers almost emotionlessly they’re mostly living apart. Henry suggests Charles Brandon take a mistress, but he responds he’d rather make CB love him again.

Showing how much being a good friend means to him, Henry changes the subject back to him and Kitty-Kat. He declares he wants to start giving favours and riches to N2. Then, he orders Culpepper to do something, and I didn’t even realise Culpepper was in the scene until Henry drew attention to him.

In the castle, Kitty-Kat meets Mary, and Mary makes how unimpressed she is clear despite Kitty-Kat being sincerely kind in trying to offer her friendship. Mary leaves.

Kitty-Kat’s childhood friend, Joan, appears.

The next scene is of Joan and Kitty-Kat alone together, and Kitty-Kat agrees to give Joan a position in court so long as she keeps her mouth shut about Kitty-Kat’s past. She naïvely believes it’s a secret to Henry.

The visual of Kitty-Kat kneeling on the floor as Joan sits above her is a cool one.

At a meeting, Henry decides to send Tom Seymour to lead some men to tear down a wall the French have built and to fight if the French show resistance.

Meanwhile, Kitty-Kat and her ladies are playing with rose petals when Lady R comes to announce Culpepper is here for a visit. Coming in, he says Henry sent him. She leads him over to a table away from the other women, and as her ladies resume playing with the roses, he informs her that Henry wants to take her with him on a trip. It turns out Henry has also given her a castle.

There’s a cut to Henry looking bored in the meeting, and then, back to Culpepper giving Kitty-Kat a gift Henry sent. As she examines the jewellery, her happiness vanishes, and hesitantly, she reveals she needs someone to talk. She explains how all the attention is sometimes overwhelming to her, and he isn’t helpful when, complimenting her beauty, he essentially tells her to get used to it.

Leaving, he somewhat pointedly addresses Lady R when he does.

During the night, Kitty-Kat puts on a decidedly not child-friendly puppet show for Henry with more visual symbolism of the virgin/whore dichotomy, and they have sex.

The next day, Henry explains what he wants done when he’s away before asking who all is in the tower. One of the men is Kitty-Kat’s cousin, and despite everyone hoping he’ll be forgiven due to his age, Henry orders his execution by means of drawing-and-quartering. He states he won’t have members of his wife’s family running around embarrassing him and Kitty-Kat with their misconduct.

In the Seymour apartment, N2 asks Anne where Edward is. N2’s going to France, and he wants some advice from Edward on military strategy. She answers Edward is with Henry. Abound with double-entendres, N2 hits on her. She dismisses him.

Next, Kitty-Kat and her ladies are packing for the trip when Henry introduces her to Prince Edward. Kitty-Kat happily plays peek-a-boo with him as Henry grills the nurse about his son’s health. Then, he spins the princeling around.

Everyone is happy aside from Lady R.

Elizabeth is introduced next, and she and Kitty-Kat get off on a better foot than Kitty-Kat did with Mary. Kitty-Kat is so grateful she takes off her necklace and insists Elizabeth accept it.

This is a good strategic move to do in front of Henry, but I really think Kitty-Kat would have done the same thing even without an audience. She’s a young, uneducated girl who's suddenly been thrust in a situation where she can no longer freely trust people, and for such a carefree girl, even knowing she needs to, it’s hard to go against such instincts. When she finds someone she judges she can safely trust, or at least, gain non-judgemental affection from, she clings to them and tries her best to ensure they’re happy.

Elsewhere, the death warrants are given to Edward. He’s uncaring about how unfair everyone thinks the young man’s death sentence is. Anne appears, and they talk about N2. He subtly suggests she sleep with N2 to try to prevent him from going after the Seymour family.

In Berkshire, there’s a party, and Henry thanks the guest for his hospitality.

There’s a shot of Culpepper watching Kitty-Kat.

Appearing, Rich tells Henry the French are talking peace with Charles Brandon and Tom. Unhappy, Henry nevertheless accepts this without throwing a fit.

There are shots of Henry, Culpepper, and several other men watching Kitty-Kat and her ladies dance.

Later, in bed, Henry asks if Kitty-Kat is happy. Assuring him she is, she brings up Mary’s chilly reception of her. He promises, in time, Mary will warm to her.

She tries to initiate sex, but too tired, he leaves.

Coming in, Joan climbs into bed with her. There’s an implication they used to be lovers, and they reminisce about the man Kitty-Kat used to sleep with. She points out there was an agreement they were to be married, but Joan asks if Kitty-Kat told Henry about any of this. Kitty-Kat replies she doesn’t need to tell him anything about what happened before. Clutching Kitty-Kat’s hands, Joan swears she won’t tell anyone about Kitty-Kat’s past. Kitty-Kat orders her to go back to bed. Reluctant, Joan eventually complies.

In the kitchen, the courtiers are all having a good time until Culpepper ruins it by making his sexual interest in Kitty-Kat clear to the others. At first, they tease him, but when he starts describing her in sexually explicit detail, things get rather uncomfortable.

Aside from general loyalty to Henry, some of these men were likely around when Anne Boleyn and several men, including her own brother, were killed. None of those men even went as far as sprouting off as he is.

He manages to somewhat salvage the situation by suggesting he and his friends go out tomorrow to find someone to get his mind of her.

In the morning, Kitty-Kat watches from her window when Culpepper and his friends leave.

The next scene clearly reveals Culpepper’s status as an irredeemable monster. The men come across a parker keeper’s wife, and after establishing she’s all alone, they help Culpepper rape her.

Next, Culpeper and the others are enjoying a bath in a creek, and the park keeper comes to confront him. Culpepper tries to pay him off, but insisting on pursuing justice, he declares to take the money would be to re-victimise his wife.

In response, Culpepper kills him.

Back at the other castle, Anne flirts with N2. He sticks his hand up her skirt. The scene doesn’t focus on this fact, but there are two guards standing in the background of the room facing the two.

Hi, awkward.

At Berkshire, Henry and his men watch Kitty-Kat and her ladies play in the mud. In good humour, Henry tells Kitty-Kat the councillors are arriving. She realises she and the others had better wash up and get properly dressed.

In the council meeting, Henry decides to release all the people being detained on suspicion of heresy. Charles Brandon remarks this is rather charitable of Henry. Establishing he still doesn’t trust the French, Henry moves on to declaring he wants all the lands and titles he gave to Jane to go to Kitty-Kat. Some of Cromwell’s stuff should go to her, too.

The next scene is of Henry and Kitty-Kat snogging in bed, but she breaks things off when she hears rain outside. Going out, she dances in it, and Henry and Culpepper both watch her.

Fin.


End file.
